Center of the Plate provides educational materials to families describing preparation methods, safe-handling instructions and recipes for beef and pork cuts.
Junior Angus Member
Rallies
Community to Feed Families in Need
Texas FFA and 4-H members donate beef and pork.
Center of the Plate, a nonprofit, public charity, donated more than 1,200 pounds (lb.) of beef and pork to four families in need in Dripping Springs, Texas. Through combined efforts with their community, Dripping Springs FFA and 4-H members are driving Center of the Plate energies to provide essential meat protein to 22 family members.
Recipients of donated protein, the Meza family is pictured with Dripping Springs FFA and 4-H members. Pictured are (from left) Grace Baxter, Claudia Meza, Hannah Fults, Claudia’s daughter and Faith Baxter.
Community collaboration
Wilson AC & Appliance, a local retail merchant, donated two freezers and provided two at cost to support Center of the Plate. Dripping Springs Presbyterian Church is housing these freezers for the families at its central location and covering electrical costs for the freezers.
Collaborating with existing local meal-service providers School’s Out, Food’s In (SOFI) and Tiger Totes, Center of the Plate identified specific families to help.
“Center of the Plate offers a unique service to the underserved of Dripping Springs. Meat protein is costly and often omitted from the food budgets of families we serve,” said Mandi McNutt with SOFI. “Their efforts complement the SOFI mission, not only by providing nutritional foods to children, but instilling into the next generation an understanding of community responsibility and loving their neighbors well.”
In addition to the beef and pork provided, Dripping Springs FFA and 4-H members worked with beef and pork industry organizations like the Texas Beef Council to provide families with recipes and safe-handling preparation information.
Long-term impact
One of the key objectives for Center of the Plate is to establish a blueprint for similar initiatives in other communities.
“We’re capturing everything we’re doing and then sharing via social media so that other people can bring a project like the Center of the Plate to their community,” said Hannah Fults, Drippings Springs FFA member and director of communications for Center of the Plate. “You need everyone pulling in the same direction with a common goal to make everything come together. When it does, it’s magic!”
Grace Baxter (left), co-founder of Center of the Plate, points out different cuts of beef and pork to Claudia Meza, mother of a family receiving a donation from Dripping Springs FFA and 4-H members.
Center of the Plate is designed to be a long-term sustainable initiative. To do so, community support is essential. A total of 11 sponsors in the Dripping Springs community are supporting FFA and 4-H members driving the Center of the Plate. Multiple funding opportunities exist in the community, and the Center of the Plate has secured support from a funding request to the Dripping Springs Wild Game Dinner managed by the United Methodist Men’s Group. This support for the fall 2016 Center of the Plate campaign will cover the beef- and pork-processing costs.
“This project is a great example of how the future leaders of agriculture in this community are giving back in a way that is unique to their passion — raising livestock that eventually ends up in the center of the plate as beef and pork protein,” said Jordan Blount, Dripping Springs FFA advisor.
Center of the Plate is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public charity with the mission of providing animal protein to families in need in the Dripping Springs community. The efforts of the Center of the Plate are being driven and managed by a joint steering committee made up of Dripping Springs FFA Chapter and Dripping Springs 4-H Club members. For more information on Center of the Plate, or if you would like to donate to this cause or become a sponsor, visit www.facebook.com/Center-of-the-Plate-Dripping-Springs or email dscenteroftheplate@gmail.com.
Editor’s Note: This release is from Center of the Plate.